Guangdong Citizen Protest Nuclear Facility

The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has left a very marked impact on how nuclear power and its related facilities are perceived.  The latest victim was a proposed uranium-processing facility in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province.  The story, appearing in The Economist, goes into great detail about the growth of inter-related trends in Chinese environmentalism.  Guangdong in particular has made headlines before when popular protests were able to bring about a shift in government policy with the 2011 Wukan protests.  While the individual credited with solving the Wukan protest peacefully, Wang Yang, is no longer active in the province, the consideration of public opinion in Chinese policy development could be a growing trend, both in Guangdong Province and China as a whole.

As the Jiangmen protest and subsequent decision by the local government to not build the uranium-processing facility shows, public opinion, especially when openly voiced in mass, has potential to become a determinant factor in Chinese energy policy.  Given the mostly negative local-level opinion towards nuclear energy and Guangdong’s past, it is very possible that this could be either an isolated event or a trend isolated to Guangdong.  However, given the active nature of Chinese social media and its netizens, it is not unimaginable to picture a China where public opinion on energy policy and connected environmental issues plays a role in shaping that policy.  Realistically, this could take shape into a relevant political variable this decade.